Pipe Track was a maintenance track located above the Wainuiomata Water Race.
Pipe Track (Water Race Track) was a sidling track built above the Wainuiomata water race, running between the old dam and Coleman’s Tunnel.. The track was cut into the northern side of Reservoir Valley and wound along the natural curves of the hillside. Built before and / or during construction of the water race, it was later used as a maintenance track.
Records show that the Council never compensated the Sinclair family for the land taken for the pipe track, even though the £240 paid to the Sinclairs had been authorised for the thirty acre area of the reservoir, it did not include access to the Pipe Track. After some correspondence, the Council did agree to raise an offer from £5 to £6 an acre for that track, yet a transaction never took place and the council continued to rely on what they believed was an earlier understanding with the Sinclairs regarding use of the pipe track. This supposed prior arrangement was treated as the basis on which the Council claimed release of the ground, though whether that belief was well founded, and to what extent, still required clarification at the time.
During the early 1920s, much of the track was buried beneath rock and debris during the construction of Maintenance Road above. As the new road was cut into the hillside to accommodate the Orongorongo pipeline, and road, spoil was cast down the slope. This also buried numerous manhole access points that had once provided entry into the water race. Large sections of the track were effectively destroyed, yet the debris mark the route’s former line. Although the track was originally flat, it was narrow due to the steep hillside. The spoil filled it in, blending it into the surrounding contours. In wider, flatter areas, some sections of the track remain visible, but even these are often overgrown with supplejack, making them difficult to traverse.
Some sections of this old track remain accessible from below, where short side tracks once linked the old tramway to the water race. Likely formed during construction to haul concrete uphill, some of these paths still exist but are difficult to find and follow. Other link tracks that exist today could have been created later on to access and fix leaks in the race.
In short, while remnants of the track still exist today, it is no longer a practical walking route and is now a bush bash. Nevertheless, it remains a part of Wainuiomata’s water infrastructure history.
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